A Low-Complexity Reconfigurable Multi-Antenna Technique for Non-Terrestrial Networks

Abstract

Multi-Antenna communication techniques are an efficient and relatively simple approach for the performance improvement of wireless communication systems. However, the direct application of multi-antenna techniques to an aerial communication system is not always feasible due to the constraints induced by the aerial platforms. Reconfigurable intelligent antenna technologies could provide an efficient solution to these problems and thus they are considered as ideal candidates for adaption in the aerial communication platforms that will be used in the 5G and beyond communication networks. In this paper, a joint Tx-Rx beamforming with beam selection and combining technique is proposed for improving the performance of an aerial communication system supported by electronically steerable antenna arrays. The main idea of the proposed scheme is to select, using an SNR maximization criterion, a pair of beam patterns between each RF chain of the ground station and the aerial platform, and combine the received SNRs under the maximal ratio principle. Initially, an analytical stochastic framework has been developed that is based on a Markov chain model, which is used to investigate the statistics of the received SNR. Then, an implementation of the novel beamforming and pattern adaptation scheme is presented, with the use of Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Radiators (ESPAR), properly designed for Ground Station to UAV links. In addition, a realistic simulator is also developed with proper channel model selection, by the aid of which, the performance of the proposed scheme has been evaluated in conjunction with the extracted analytical results.